


Swim

by br0jangles



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Kiss, M/M, neck touches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:56:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22991332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/br0jangles/pseuds/br0jangles
Summary: Dave has never had his first kiss.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 15
Kudos: 199





	Swim

**Author's Note:**

> Koa owns my ass as always, and I wrote this based on one of their lil comics. <333
> 
> [comic](https://twitter.com/koa_doodles/status/1234186920562958336?s=20)

They’ve been doing the same thing they always do; laying piled up on the couch with some movie they’ve already seen too many times playing on the television in front of them. Dave’s got his head in Karkat’s lap. Karkat’s got one hand in Dave’s hair, the other in a bowl of buttery explosion kernels.

A normal afternoon, by all accounts. Boring. Easy. 

Neither of them has spoken in a while. An hour? Longer? It’s hard to tell, when all the days run together in almost exactly the same way.

It startles both of them when Dave gives a long sigh and scrunches up his face. “I hate this scene, dude. It’s so jarring, in a narrative context. That’s not how people kiss for the first time, it’s like… Unbelievable.”

“Like you would know,” Karkat says, rolling his eyes. “I doubt that anyone’s ever been able to put up with you long enough to want to kiss you.”

“That may be true, but the scene is still bullshit,” Dave says. He keeps watching it play out, but it makes him shift slightly. He’s not uncomfortable, but he’s… shifty. “It’s not like you would know better than me, anyway.”

“I would, actually,” Karkat says, and he has the nerve to sound smug about it. “Turns out that I’m actually pretty likable, unlike some insufferable cool kid asshole.”

Dave abruptly turns and looks up, jostling Karkat’s hand away from his hair. “No way, dude. Who would kiss you? I don’t believe it for a second.”

Predictably, Karkat’s cheeks catch pink and he avoids Dave’s eye contact. “That’s none of your business.”

Dave scoffs and crosses his arms. “That’s not cool. You can’t just drop a bomb like that and then not tell me. Unless you’re lying.

“I’m not lying!”

“It was Terezi, wasn’t it?”

Karkat doesn’t respond. His face is still uncomfortably hot, and he’s still looking at the wall. Dave mercifully drops the subject and turns back toward the television.

Karkat’s hand automatically fingers back into his hair.

They’re silent again, for another immeasurable amount of time. Dave usually isn’t the type to let his curiosity die so easily, and Karkat is cautiously grateful for the change of pace, even if the air is a lot thicker than it was a few minutes ago.

Of course the peace doesn’t last, though.

“How the fuck have you been kissed an I haven’t? That’s totally not fair.”

Karkat rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t have to be  _ fair. _ Maybe you should try not being such a douchebag, and people would like you more.”

“You like me, though,” Dave says, and Karkat’s heart promptly gets stuck in his throat.

Another loaded moment of silence passes between them.

Dave carefully sits up, and it feels like they’ve never sat this close together before. They’re both thinking the same thing, but neither of them is willing to be the first to say it.

Finally, Karkat can’t take it anymore, and he huffs in flustered agitation. “I thought you  _ ‘weren’t gay’ _ or whatever,” he demands. He’s looking at Dave, but it’s not quite at his eyes. Even if at this proximity, he can see them through Dave’s shades.

Dave shrugs puts on a smile, but it’s obviously only meant to cover up the fact that he’s nervous. God, he’s  _ nervous. _ What the fuck, so uncool. “It’s not really gay, is it? It’s just one bro helping another bro get his first kiss on. It’s like… not even a real kiss. A bro kiss. A--”

“Please shut the fuck up.” Karkat puts both hands on his face and drags them down in embarrassed exasperation. He’s not sure if he’s embarrassed for himself or for Dave, but he sure is feeling flustered.

“If I… if I do this for you--”

“If you kiss me.”

“...Yeah… That.” 

Karkat fidgets with his hands, and suddenly Dave is much more into this idea than he was before. This could be fun. At the very least, it will give him something to tease Karkat about. Not that Dave isn’t the one who should be humble about this, but still.

Karkat is  _ cute _ right now.

“Spit it out, dude, whats your condition? If you kiss me, then what?” Wow, he said it again. They’re really doing this, aren’t they? They’re going to kiss, this is it.

Karkat sucks in a breath, his hands falling firmly into his lap. “Nothing, I guess. I just… Don’t want you to be an asshole about it.” The look on his face is so… honest and vulnerable, Dave’s first instinct is to deflect from it, because wow, what is  _ that _ about?

“When have I ever been an asshole about anything ever in my life?” Dave asks. He shifts where he’s sitting on his knees, fully facing Karkat.

Karkat shoots him a sharp look, but he flinches away when he notices how much closer Dave has gotten. “Can you please be serious for once??” he asks. And wow, if his cheeks aren’t the cutest red color. It spreads all the way up to his ears, and Dave  _ wants _ to kiss him.

“I am being serious,” Dave says, and his eyes are squarely focused on Karkat’s mouth now. “I’m seriously going to kiss you now.”

Karkat opens his mouth to protest again, but he doesn’t get a word out before Dave is closing the gap between them.

Their lips touch, and everything stops. Neither of them moves, eyes wide, hearts beating out of their chests.

The butterflies Dave didn’t know lived in his stomach are eating away at him, and he doesn’t really know how to cope with it. It’s a lot. It’s overwhelming and hot and he feels like he can’t breathe.

So he pulls away, just enough to look into Karkat’s panicked eyes. There’s a spark there, an energy he’s felt a million times before, but never knew what it meant. Now, it’s easy to place.

He’s going to kiss him again. He  _ has _ to.

So he does. He dives back in without hesitation, and Karkat meets him halfway just as eagerly. The first one had been cautious, light, only lasted a few seconds. This one is firmer, more confident, something that feels like it’s never going to stop.

The angle is a little weird, with Karkat still sitting front-ways on the couch, but that doesn’t last. The air between them is magnetic, and Karkat is moving before his brain can catch up with it. All he knows is that he needs to be closer, needs more.

He pulls one leg up on the couch, leaving the other foot on the floor, but still fully turning toward Dave. Their chests bump, and it startles each of them enough to shake the perilous balance of their kiss. They might be all in at this point, but it’s still carefully strained, like an elastic band that might snap at any second if they make the wrong move.

Apparently, touching wasn’t the wrong move though, because it only makes Dave shift even closer. Their bodies don’t touch again, but he  _ does _ bring a hand up to touch Karkat’s cheek. He molds his hand against it so carefully, Karkat can’t help but sigh into their kiss.

They both startle again, as the sigh parts Karkat’s lips. There’s a moment of hesitation, before Dave is opening his as well, and fitting them against Karkat’s. A thrill runs up his spine, with Karkat’s lip settled so well between his own.

Dave makes a noise of approval, and it makes Karkat shiver. 

Wow, that was cool. It was… cute, right? Karkat is cute. Dave thinks Karkat is cute, fuck.

Fuck.

He lets the hand on Karkat’s cheek slip down a little, then further. It settles against Karkat’s neck, and Karkat sucks in a sharp breath through his nose. He goes stiff enough to make Dave open his eyes and furrow his brows.

“What?” Dave asks. It’s soft, anything but accusatory. He hopes to god that Karkat isn’t about to ask him to stop.

Karkat doesn’t say anything, but he is giving Dave a very serious look. It lasts long enough to start to actually make Dave uncomfortable, before Karkat raises a hand and very lightly touches Dave’s neck.

Dave sighs and tilts his head to the side, which startles a noise out of Karkat. He closes his hand more firmly around the side of Dave’s neck, looking every kind of bewildered. His eyes flick back and forth between his own hand and Dave’s eyes, obviously flustered. His claws touch skin, and his own face heats up even further.

“Holy shit,” he says.

Dave flusters and shifts, suddenly feeling very exposed under Karkat’s eye. “What?”

“You’re just--  _ letting _ me do that?” Karkat accuses. He doesn’t move his hand away, though.

“Y-yes??” Dave says, but he doesn’t sound sure about it now. “No? Fuck you, dude, don’t make it weird...”

Karkat huffs, but his eyes are so fucking soft. Dave is about to tap out, feeling just a little too vulnerable for comfort, but Karkat doesn’t let him. It’s his turn to dive in and kiss Dave.

More like, he grabs Dave by the front of his god tier pjs and pulls him back in. This time, their lips meet in a crash, and there’s not a moment of hesitation to open up. They’re in the motherfucking shit now. It’s sink or swim, and neither of them is planning to let this ship sink.

Hands grab at clothes, touch skin, feel into hair. Their lips move frantically, like they can’t possibly get enough. Their bodies touch again, but this time neither of them shies away from it.

It’s nice, it’s so fucking nice. It’s heavy and hot and so much and not enough all at once.

It’s perfect.

It’s… it’s a little emotional.

When tongues touch, that’s what finally pulls Dave away. His face is flushed and hot, and he’s afraid that if he keeps going, another part of him might end up flushed and hot. And that’s not exactly first-kiss rated material.

Holy shit, he just had his first kiss. And it was with Karkat. And it was fucking amazing. Karkat is amazing.

“Dude,” Dave says. They’re both sitting there, panting, flustered, glazed. The room itself is thick and stifling, and ripe with simmering affections. He’s watching Karkat carefully, trying to guess if he’s feeling the same way Dave is.

Karkat’s lips are pressed into a thin line. He’s flushed up to his ears and down to his collar bones, and it’s… god, it’s so fucking attractive. Karkat is attractive, why has Dave been sleeping on this? He should have asked Karkat to kiss him a long time ago, what the hell was he thinking?

_ Not gay, _ yeah fucking right. Point proven.

“That was…” Dave starts to say, but he finds himself at a loss for words to tell Karkat exactly how much he liked it.

“Yeah,” is all Karkat says, but it’s breathy, and wow, did Dave do that? Did he make Karkat breathless?

He suddenly finds himself wondering if Karkat kissed Terezi the same way. If Karkat liked it as much. If he liked it  _ more. _ He’s mortified to find that he hopes Karkat likes him more. Suddenly a lot of shit starts clicking into place and starts making sense, and…

Damn. Dave has a crush, doesn’t he?

He puts a hand to the back of his own head and averts his eyes, because if he doesn’t, he’s going to keep staring at Karkat all afternoon and all night. “Uh… want to go get lunch?” he asks.

And Karkat seems grateful for the break in tension, because when he nods, he looks relieved. “Yeah. Let’s go,” he agrees.

When he stands, he holds out a hand, and Dave can only stare at it for a moment, before he realizes that he’s supposed to  _ take it. _ He chews his lip as butterflies threaten his stomach again, but he takes the hand.

The walk to the kitchen is quiet, but comfortable. Their hands firmly linked together.

**Author's Note:**

> come be my frienddddd  
> disco: Spook#5253  
> twit: [@br0jangles](https://twitter.com/br0jangles)


End file.
